He broke his neck so they cut open his brain and put a chip in there – and it worked [VIDEO]

17 Apr, 2016 by McIntosh

Print this article Font size -16+

Thanks to an experimental medical procedure that included implanting a chip in his brain, Ian Burkhart was able to regain control of his hands.

From Rare:

Burkhart broke his neck five years ago when he hit the ocean floor while diving off of the coast in North Carolina. The accident left him paralyzed from the chest down with limited movement in his arms and hands but no feeling in them. On Wednesday, doctors announced Burkhart is able to control his hand using a computer that reads his thoughts and transmits the instructions to the nerves in his hand, bypassing the neck injury.

In 2014, doctors implanted a chip the size of an eraser head in Burkhart’s brain, after he told them he was willing to participate. Burkhart’s father was somewhat hesitant to see his son undergo open brain surgery unnecessarily, but eventually came around to the idea.